Well, DVD-Audio (DVD-A) is finally
here . . . at least the players are. (We now have to differentiate between
DVD-Video or DVD-V, which represents the DVD movies we have been watching for
several years, and DVD-Audio or DVD-A, which represents DVDs with just music
on them.) Several major companies have released
their first models into what promises to be a new foray. Full range surround
sound music, in the form of 5.1 audio, as well as 96/24 two-channel audio,
have been around for more than a year. DTS has quite a catalog of 5.1 audio
CDs already, and they work on any CD player or DVD player, as long as you have
a DTS decoder in your receiver (or outboard decoder). DTS sound is 48 kHz - 20
bit. There are also some DVDs out there with two-channel 96 kHz - 24 bit
music, marketed by Chesky Records. So, is DVD-A really new? Yes, it is.

Although DTS music on DVDs and 96/24
two-channel stereo on DVDs are both a form of DVD-Audio, the new
"real" DVD-A consists of 96/24 signals in all 5.1 channels, with no
compression (i.e., they are lossless rather than lossy). DTS and DD are lossy
formats, in that the compression techniques cause some of the music info to be
lost. This was necessary when they were used on laserdiscs and in the theater,
where disc space was limited.

Now, with DVD having about 18 GB of
space using both layers and both sides, space is not so much of an issue. Or
is it? Well, to have 5.1 sound, there is only enough room, from an economical
standpoint, to have 96/24. For two-channel stereo DVD-A, this is bumped up to
192/24. To do this, obviously the A10 has 192/24 DACs. Even some
high-performance CD players out there still only have 96/24 DACs, so we are in
for some interesting times ahead.

The A10

The Technics DVD-A10 is a very solid
unit in construction, and has a sleek front panel. On the left is the power
on/off push button, and underneath that is a headphone jack with volume
control. The reason for the headphone jack prominence will be explained below.

To the right of the on/off button is
the panel display, which consists of small LEDs that indicate activation of
V.S.S. (Virtual Surround Sound), Re-Master (the instruction manual is not
clear about this, but I think it activates up-sampling), Audio Only (turns off
the video when playing DVDs with music only to minimize any noise that the
video circuit might produce), and the Sound Track Channel
Indicators (shows how many tracks of audio there are on the disc). To the
right of the LED panel is the disc tray above and the main LCD panel below
(indicates the usual info about track number, time, etc.). To the far right is
the push button panel for open/close tray, selecting groups of tracks on a DVD
(a DVD theoretically could hold several music albums), stop, pause, and play.
Each panel set has a soft blue light above that reflects down onto the panel,
creating one of the most attractive looks I have seen in players so far.

The rear panel looks pretty much like
I have seen on other DVD players (no reason to put expense into making it look
glamorous). Jacks for just about anything you would want are there, including
component video out. However, the unit will not output progressive scan, and
this is the only disappointment I found in the player. Progressive scan is now
widely available on modest priced players, and with the release of affordable
HDTVs and Digital TVs ($2,500), progressive scan will be more and more
important. The 5.1 analog audio outputs carry both DD and DTS now, instead of
having just the DD that previous DVD players had. So, if you have a receiver
with 5.1 inputs but only DD decoding or even no decoding, you can get both DD
and DTS by using the 5.1 outputs from the A10. Fortunately, every new receiver
these days has both DD and DTS decoding built-in, so having it in the player
is no longer important. However, the 5.1 analog outputs are necessary for
DVD-A, since this format is not output as a bitstream, due to copyright
issues. So, any way you look at it, you will need to connect the A10 to your
receiver using a set of six RCA coaxial analog cables to make full use of the
player. You should also use a digital cable, assuming your receiver has DD and
DTS decoding, so that you can utilize the DSP modes in your receiver.

The remote control is easy to use, in
that most of the controls are covered by a lid. Only the ones you are likely
to use most often are exposed all the time, such as power, open/close tray,
stop, pause, and play. Remotes continue to improve, but the problem is that
more functions appear with new models and they have to decide where to put
them. This causes an occasional remote to be terrible. Not so with the
Technics. All of the functions are available On Screen as well. The player LCD
panel indicates every function, including Group Number, Track Number, Chapter
Number, Time, Audio Signal Type (LPCM, PCM/PPCM, Sampling Rate, Bits per
Channel, and Language Code), Page Number (for still pictures), Subtitles,
Angle, Cinema Voice Mode, Picture Modes (sharp or soft), V.S.S., and Master
Volume (analog only).

Video quality on the A-10 is about the
same as previous DVD players. It is excellent, but again, it sure would be
nice to have progressive scan as part of the component video capability. This
could hurt sales of the DVD-A10. Lots of people I know are planning to get an
HDTV this Fall.

The sound

Although the DVD-A music available
right now is mostly elevator music, I was immediately struck with the amazing
quality. It sounds smoother than conventional 44/16 CDs, and you get nearly
three times as many channels (the 0.1 is not full range). Even with just a
mass market receiver and modest speakers, the sound quality approaches
high-performance CD equipment. The attacks on steel string guitar are crisp
and clean. Voices are smooth. I could not hear any harshness. Piano is very
lifelike, perhaps because there is so much more recording signal there.

Moving between audio tracks using the
A-10 felt like a very expensive CD player. It seemed to take a bit longer moving between DVD-A
tracks than moving between CD tracks, but I can put up with that. The front panel
indicates when you have a multi-channel disc playing, compared to two-channel
stereo. The reason for this is that many receivers will take two-channel
stereo and automatically decode it with Pro Logic to give surround sound. The
indicator thus lets you know you have native 5.1 or two-channel coming from
the disc.

The V.S.S. (Virtual Surround Sound) is
a feature that will become more and more popular I think. It is DSP that takes
the 5.1 sound and attempts to create the surround sound sensation from just
two speakers or even with headphones. Although I can't imagine anyone having a
player like this and only two speakers in their system, I can see how it might
be used with headphones, say late at night when you want to watch Stallone. In
any case, it is only an interesting approximation, and will never really
compete with a set of 5.1 speakers. Maybe headphones with two drivers in each
ear would be useful, one driver in the front of the headphone facing back
towards the ear, and the other driver in the rear of the headphone facing
forward, but this would not need V.S.S. DSP.

Two-Channel 96/24 continues to sound
terrific on DVDs, but this is not something new to players such as the
DVD-A10. What is new though is the presence of 192/24 DACs for decoding 192/24
two-channel DVD-As. It is the 192/24 PCM on the A-10 and other such players
that will compete with Sony's SACD (Super Audio CD) since SACD also has a very
high bit rate. Although 192/24 discs will have slightly clearer sound than
96/24 discs (Marantz showed some years ago that you can detect improvements up
to 500 kHz sampling), 5.1 discs will be limited to 96/24 (for now) because of
space limitations on DVD (I guess they don't want to make music discs that you
have to turn over and play the other side to listen to the album). However, I
suspect improvements in the audio begin to flatten out so that the difference
between 44/16 and 96/24 is greater than between 96/24 and 192/24.

The real problem at this point is the
software (availability of the discs). SACD is suffering the same difficulty.
Sony has the better situation, because they have Sony Music as an arm and
could have released lots and lots of SACDs with their player. Where are they?
I suspect politics is at work here, because they could easily just take some
master tapes from excellent previous recordings and remix them for 5.1 (studio
tapes have many, many audio tracks). In any case, even though the discs are
not taking up any space in the music stores right now, they should be
relatively soon, because there is just too much money at stake not to. And
besides, the A-10 and other DVD-A players will still play all the other discs,
including the existing library of thousands of DVD movies.

The A-10, like most other players,
down-converts 96/24 and 192/24, before sending it out as a bitstream,
due to copyright issues. If you want to get the most out of the high bitrate,
you have to use the analog output jacks on the player. This means having six
coaxial cables going from the player to the 5.1 analog input jacks on your
receiver. I don't see this changing in the near future, so I hope the players
adopt something like the DB-25 connector like we have on our computers. This
would mean only one cable, although the connector itself is large. The problem
also means lots of choices in the DVD-A player, deciding on what you want and
don't want down-converted. I hope the next generation of players make all of
this easier, but I am not holding my breath.

Conclusion

The DVD-A10 is an excellent DVD player
as well as first shot at DVD-A. I am very enthusiastic about the future of 5.1
music. The sound quality is superb, easily surpassing 44/16 CDs. I just hope
the software starts coming soon. For one, I would be willing to pay a premium
for 5.1 discs made from some of my favorite old CDs, and even from some really
old stereo LPs that have master performances. Come on guys. Get with it!